It feels like noir central with Jane Greer
and Elisha Cook Jr in the same film. And with their characters married to
one another - giving all men some hope. He even gets to kiss her. Twice.
I would wager that is the only time in a film Cook got to kiss a dame. Maybe
the Maltese Falcon but nothing of flesh and blood. And that good looking.
The twelfth film in the Falcon series and a good one. Basic stuff but a few
surprises thrown our way. Tom Conway as the Falcon is as dashing as usual
and his sidekick - this time still called Goldie Locke but played by Vincent
Barnett - is as annoying as usual - only Edward Brophy is palatable
in that role. Rita Corday is back again for her fifth appearance in
a Falcon film all as different characters. She must have had pictures of
somebody. Not that she has been a burden to my eyes.
Joan (Corday) looks at Lawrence sweetly, flashes her eyes and asks him to
look into some missing pearls of her employer (Esther Howard). The ones she
has are fake and Joan thinks she will be blamed for stealing the real ones.
Before the Falcon even begins the fake pearls are stolen and someone killed.
Among the possibilities are Nick (Elisha Cook Jr) who is a radio DJ with
bug eyes and a jittery manner, his wife (Greer) who is suspect for loving
this guy, Beaumont who I only mention because he is Jason Robards - father
of Jason Robards Jr. Another murder takes place, the pearls get switched
about and then another murder. Not too bad. Good role for both Cook and Greer
- he had already been in The Maltese Falcon and Phantom Lady so he had his
noir credentials while Greer had The Big Steal and Out of the Past in her
headlights right ahead. She gets to sing two songs here in a nightclub and
since she had sung with some Big Bands, I would guess that is really her
singing.
